Buffy's Dying Angel
by Twilight Unicorn
Summary: What if Buffy hadn't been able to give Angel her blood in time?


**Title:** Buffy's Dying Angel

**Summary:** What would have happened if Buffy had gone hunting after Faith to get her blood, wasn't successful (since Faith was smart enough to hide somewhere else for awhile), and THEN went to Angel, too late to save him? This is what I wrote concerning this question.

**Author: **Twilight Unicorn

**Disclaimer:** They're not mine, and never will be (regretfully).

**Author's Note:** Before you go ballistic on me…. YES, I am an avid B/A fan. I just couldn't seem to get this morbid thought out of my head fast enough, so bear with me.

* * *

Buffy gazed mournfully at Angel as he lay in pain on his bed. She carefully sat down beside him, and gently stroked his sweat-soaked hair.

"Angel," Buffy whispered, her voice trembling with pain and uncertainty.

Angel stirred, and struggled to open his fever-blurred eyes. Slowly he focused his gaze on Buffy. Trembling, Angel took the hand stroking his hair and placed it against his right cheek. Buffy gasped as she felt how hot Angel's skin was. Tears came to her eyes.

Angel swallowed with difficulty, then said, "Buffy. You're…here."

Buffy nearly broke down crying as she heard how weak his voice was, as well as how hard it was for him to speak. "There is…something…I need…to tell…you…. Look in…the…top right…drawer…of my…desk…. Bring what…you…find…to me."

Buffy hesitantly stood, gazing at Angel, as he gazed back with haunted pleading eyes. She knew that she didn't have any time left to give Angel her blood as she had planned. Her heart breaking, she walked over to the desk and pulled open the top right drawer. In it she found a small jewelry case. It seemed familiar to her. She walked back over to Angel, and silently handed him the box.

With a trembling hand and labored breath, Angel took the box. He fumbled with the case, then opened it. Inside the jewelry case a silver ring lay. It looked well worn and beaten. The engraved image on the top was that of two hands holding a heart below a crown. Angel carefully took the ring out of the case, and held it out to Buffy. He said in a strong voice, finding a sudden strength to speak, knowing he had only a moment, "I gave this to you on your seventeenth birthday. I found it not long after I returned from Hell. It is this which brought me back. But there is something el--"

Angel broke off, his strength gone as quickly as it came. He doubled over in agony. Buffy frantically reached for Angel as he cried out. A moment later Angel clung to Buffy, sobbing, as the Scooby Gang came running into the room. They stopped short at what they saw, and remained silent. They could see that Angel would not last for one more minute, and that he fought against the ending of that minute.

Angel said between body-convulsive sobs, straining to say what he needed to say, "Buffy. Take. The ring. Re-remember. Me. My--" Angel became absolutely still, as his head gently fell onto Buffy's lap. The tension caused by the unbearable pain was gone. With a sigh, Angel spoke his last word.

"Wife."

No sound did Angel make as he turned to dust. The ring lay among his ashes, at Buffy's feet.

Buffy's hands flew to her mouth, as she gazed wide-eyed at the ring resting in the dust. An eerie keening-wail came from Buffy, as she felt the agony of her loss.

_"NO!"_

As suddenly as she started, she stopped. Her friends watched in unease, unsure of what Buffy would do next.

Slowly Buffy lowered her right arm, and picked up the ring from the dust. Carefully, she took her necklace off, placed the ring beside the cross, and put the necklace back on.

Gracefully she stood, and turned to face her friends. Chills ran down all their backs, as they saw her face. Her expression was determined, as a soul-deep, gut-wrenching grief and an all-consuming rage shone from her eyes. When she spoke, her voice was calm. A calmness that would make any sane, or insane, person run, but her friends did not run.

"They have gone too far. They will not win…_this_ time."

* * *

It was over. The Mayor was dead. The Scooby Gang stood behind Buffy, as she gazed at the burnt-up remains of the high school. In her hands she held a small urn. On the urn was the Irish family crest of a winged-lion clutching a capitol A, below that were the following words engraved: "Angel/Angelus, may you find the peace you could not find on earth."

As Buffy gazed into the smoke surrounding the burnt building, a shape seemed to form. The shape was that of a tall, dark-haired man in a long black duster. Words whispered in her mind in a voice she knew well, and would never forget: _ "Well done, Beloved."_

Buffy wept.


End file.
